The Chimney Sweeper (Songs Of Innocence )

When my mother died I was very young,     And my father sold me while yet my tongue,     Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep,     So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.     Theres little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head     That curled like a lambs back was shavd, so I said.     Hush Tom never mind it, for when your heads bare,     You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair     And so he was quiet. & that very night.     As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight     That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack     Were all of them lockd up in coffins of black,     And by came an Angel who had a bright key     And he opend the coffins & set them all free.     Then down a green plain leaping laughing they run     And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.     Then naked & white, all their bags left behind.     They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.     And the Angel told Tom, if hed be a good boy,     Hed have God for his father & never want joy.     And so Tom awoke and we rose in the dark     And got with our bags & our brushes to work.     Tho the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm     So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.